When an earthquake devastated a large portion of Haiti on January 12, 2010, Dr. Mark Pearlmutter, Vice President of Emergency Service for Steward Healthcare, arrived five days later with a team to provide emergency medical care in the town of Milot, about 75 miles outside of Port-au-Prince. On Sunday, Dr. Pearlmutter embarked on his 16th trip to the Sacre Coeur Hospital in Milot and brought with him a much needed resource in the form of an ambulance, donated by George Gilpin, CEO and President of EasCare Ambulance in Dorchester.

Though Pearlmutter’s initial involvement in Haiti was focused on relief, he quickly became aware of the lack of available medical services in the area.

“I realized there was a great need there, and I returned three or four times in the next three or four months. I arranged to have medical students rotate in and out, as well as clinical faculty, to develop EMS systems and testing and treatment for cervical cancer, as rates are very high in the area,” said Pearlmutter.

In addition to the delivery of the ambulance, the main goal of this trip was juvenile nutrition and the treatment of women with at-risk pregnancies. The team accompanying him consisted of 17 clinical faculty members associated with Tufts University School of Medicine.

Gilpin, 59, has donated ambulances through EasCare in the past. Eight months ago, EasCare donated an ambulance to an OB/GYN clinic in Ghana, while two weeks ago they send another to a hospital in Cabo Verde. He attributes the success of these efforts to the diversity of EasCare’s workforce.

“It was due to EasCare’s diversity with our employees that this effort was requested since it was brought to our attention by our employees, as EasCare is represented by many native members of the local Haitian community,” said Gilpin. “Our involvement with the Steward Haitian Outreach Program started after I spoke with a former colleague who had traveled to Haiti with Dr. Pearlmutter. After hearing about his experience, I reached out to him to offer our assistance.”

EasCare’s ambulance, which will help transport patients from rural areas who otherwise could not reach the hospital, is not the first donation Dr. Pearlmutter’s mission in Haiti has received. Last month, the hospital in Milot received four modular housing units courtesy of Brian Lash, founder and CEO of Target Logistics, the largest provider of modular housing in the US.

“One of the things we want to focus on is high-risk pregnancies, and the hope is that these modular homes can be a maternal wait home adjacent to the hospital, so when the women go into labor they are right across the street from the hospital so they can have a controlled medical delivery as opposed to in their remote village,” said Pearlmutter. “If we can get these patients to move to the hospital in their last month of pregnancy, we can save a lot of lives.”